Category: Movies

“The Gray Man” Ryan Gosling & Chris Evans – The New Poster and Trailer is Here!

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The Gray Man trailer is here and it looks awesome.  Deal me in.

Ryan Gosling is THE GRAY MAN and Chris Evans is his psychopathic adversary in the Netflix/AGBO spy thriller directed by Anthony and Joe Russo – available globally July 22 on Netflix.

Also starring Ana de Armas, with Regé-Jean Page, Billy Bob Thornton, Jessica Henwick, Dhanush, Wagner Moura and Alfre Woodard. Based on the novel The Gray Man by Mark Greaney, the screenplay is by Joe Russo, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.

THE GRAY MAN is CIA operative Court Gentry (Ryan Gosling), aka, Sierra Six. Plucked from a federal penitentiary and recruited by his handler, Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton), Gentry was once a highly-skilled, Agency-sanctioned merchant of death. But now the tables have turned and Six is the target, hunted across the globe by Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), a former cohort at the CIA, who will stop at nothing to take him out. Agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) has his back. He’ll need it.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) / Z-View

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The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)

Director:  Robert Fuest

Screenplay:  James Whiton, William Goldstein

Starring:  Vincent Price, Joseph Cotton, Virginia North and Terry-Thomas

Tagline: Dr. Phibes has great vibes!

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Dr. Anton Phibes (Price) is out for revenge.  When Phibes learned his wife was in a terrible auto accident, he jumped in his car and raced to get to her.  Sadly, Phibes was also involved in a wreck.  Meanwhile, Dr. Phibes’ wife died on the operating table.

Four years later, disfigured due to his accident, Dr. Phibes is ready to extract his revenge on the doctors who failed to save his wife.  Phibes plots to kill each based on one of the Ten Plagues of Egypt.  After the third doctor is murdered, the police figure out Dr. Phibes is the killer.  Always a step behind the insane Dr. Phibes, the police continue to search for clues as the bodies pile up.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes is supposed to be a dark comedy, but there aren’t any real laughs.  Dr. Phibes often kills his victims using elaborate Rube Goldbergesque contraptions.  In between murders he spends time dancing with his mute assistant with music provided by his large wind-up animatrons.  The advertising for Dr. Phibes – “Love Means Never Having to Say You’re Ugly” – “Dr. Phibes has great vibes” – indicates they weren’t sure how to sell the film to the public.  Once you’ve seen the film, that is understandable.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes isn’t a great film or a bad film.  It’s a strange film.  For that reason The Abominable Dr. Phibes rates 2 of 5 stars.

“Vengeance” Written, Directed and Starring B.J. Novak – The Trailer is Here!

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I like the look of the Vengeance trailer.  This is one to keep an eye on.

VENGEANCE, the directorial debut from writer and star B.J. Novak (“The Office”), is a darkly comic thriller about Ben Manalowitz, a journalist and podcaster who travels from New York City to West Texas to investigate the death of a girl he was hooking up with.

With an ensemble cast that includes Issa Rae, Ashton Kutcher, Boyd Holbrook, J. Smith-Cameron, and Dove Cameron.

“Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One” Starring Tom Cruise – The Trailer is Here!

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I’m a fan of Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible movies. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One looks to be another winner.  I just wish that it wasn’t released in two parts.  I’d much rather see a 3 or 4 hour film in one sitting than to have to wait a year for the conclusion.  In my way of thinking a movie is a complete story.

 We all share the same fate. Watch the official teaser trailer for #MissionImpossible – Dead Reckoning Part One starring Tom Cruise. Coming to theatres 2023.

BULLET TRAIN: The ART and MAKING of the FILM is Coming!

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Bullet Train: The Art and Making of the Film is coming on August 2nd.  Here’s what will be in it…

The official companion to the film Bullet Train from Deadpool 2 and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw director David Leitch, starring Brad Pitt. Screenplay by Zak Olkewicz.

Assassin-for-hire Ladybug (Brad Pitt) is filling in for a colleague and just wants an easy in-and-out mission for once. What he gets is far from it. There are four other assassins on this Japanese bullet train (Joey King, Brian Tyree Henry, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Zazie Beetz) and when each assassin’s mission impedes the others’, it leads to disastrous consequences.

Go behind the scenes of this action-packed film in exclusive detail. This beautiful coffee-table book is full to the brim with concept art, behind-the-scenes photography, and storyboards, accompanied by exclusive interviews with the cast and crew, including David Leitch, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, and Hiroyuki Sanada.

If Bullet Train: The Art and Making of the Film sounds like something you’d like, click on the link since pre-orders are now available!

“The Takedown” (2022) / Z-View

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The Takedown (2022)

Director:  Louis Leterrier

Screenplay:  Stéphane Kazandjian

Starring:  Omar Sy and Laurent Lafitte 

Tagline: Two Cops. One Case. No Clue.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Ousmane Diakhité (Sy) and François Monge (Lafitte) are two cops who years ago worked together.  Their careers took different paths, but a case has brought them together again.  Half a body was found on a train!  Although they have different methods,  Diakhité and Monge are going to have to make things work to solve the case!

The Takedown is full of bad jokes and forced humor.  I tried to make it through the movie.  When they chased a suspect into a bumper car rink, and the suspect jumped in a bumper car to make his getaway, I thought this cannot get any worse.  Then one of the cops used his police ID to commandeer a bumper car and give chase.  If this is your kind of humor, you’ll like The Takedown better than me.  Look at the photo below, if that makes you laugh, then add a couple of stars to my rating to get yours.  As for me, The Takedown gets 1 of 5 stars.

House of Wax (1953) / Z-View

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House of Wax (1953)

Director:  André De Toth

Screenplay:  Crane Wilbur based on The Wax Works by Charles S. Belden

Starring:  Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Carolyn Jones, Roy Roberts and Charles Bronson (as Charles Buchinsky).

Tagline: UNLIKE ANYTHING YOU’VE SEEN BEFORE!

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Henry Jarrod (Price) is a skilled sculptor who creates life-like wax figures of famous people from history.  Jarrod’s business partner, Matthew Burke (Roberts) feels their wax museum would do better business if Jarrod sculpted scenes of murderers and their victims.  Jarrod refuses. So for the insurance, Burke sets the museum on fire.  He douses Jarrod with kerosene and leaves him to burn alive!

Months later a horribly disfigured man murders Burke.  Coincidently (?), Henry Jarrod reappears.  Although the fire didn’t disfigure his face or kill him, Jarrod is confined to a wheelchair.  His burned hands are no longer useful.   Jarrod plans to create a new wax museum with the help of his assistant, Igor (Bronson) and some of his art students.  When Burke’s fiancé is murdered by a disfigured man, the police begin looking for a serial killer.  And isn’t it strange that Jarrod’s new figures look amazingly like women who have recently been killed?

The disfigured man has his sights on more victims… will the police discover his identity in time to stop him?

House of Wax was originally presented in 3D, so there are some scenes specifically to take advantage of the process.  This is one of Vincent Price’s most famous roles and rightly so.  Carolyn Jones is a standout in one of her earliest roles.  Charles Bronson is effective as Igor, Price’s deaf/mute assistant.

House of Wax is a reworking of 1933’s Mystery at the Wax Museum (which is also worth a watch).  Interestingly enough, the success of the 1953 film, gave Warner Bros. the idea to create a weekly television series involving bizarre murders solved by a trio of amateur detectives who own a wax museum.  A pilot was filmed, but rejected as too intense for television.  The pilot was then expanded into a full length feature, titled Chamber of Horrors and released to theaters!

House of Wax rates 4 of 5 stars.

RIP: John Aylward

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John Aylward, a character actor who is best known for his roles on The West Wing and ER, died on May 16th at the age of 75.  No cause of death was given.

John Aylward graduated from the University of Washington’s Professional Actor’s Training Program in 1970.  The biggest majority of his career until the mid-1980s when he started getting roles on television and in movies.  For the rest of his career Mr. Aylward alternated between feature films and television.  His best known roles were as Dr. Donald Anspaugh on 74 episodes of ER and The West Wing where he played former DNC Chair, Barry Goodwin.  Other notable television appearances include the series: Ally McBeal, The X-Files, The Practice, Law & Order, Boston Legal, Alias, The Mentalist,  CSI, Mad Men, Fringe, American Horror Story, Yellowstone and Briarpatch.  Some of Mr. Aylward’s feature film appearances include: Armageddon, The Crazies, Water for Elephants, Gangster Squad and The Way Back.

John Aylward was a character actor that would have found work in any era.  Like most character actors, you might not recognize his name, but you knew his face.  You also knew that John Aylward’s appearance in any movie or television show meant it was going to get a little better because he was in it.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to John Aylward’s family, friends and fans.

“The Good Neighbor” – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

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The trailer for The Good Neighbor makes it look like a suspense film with brains.  The poster though, appears to be for a drive-in horror movie.  Both types could be good, but I hope The Good Neighbor is more of the first.  Deal me in.

A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David (Luke Kleintank) and Robert (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene. While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive. When David meets Vanessa (Eloise Smyth), the victim’s sister, he submits to a reckless passion and underlying sense of redemption before realizing Robert will do unspeakable things to protect their secret.

Tarzan of the Apes (1918) / Z-View

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Tarzan of the Apes (1918)

Director: Scott Sidney

Screenplay:  Fred Miller and Lois Weber based on the novel Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Starring:  Elmo Lincoln, Enid Markey and Gordon Griffith.

Tagline:  Tarzan did not know why he caressed her… He had never seen a white woman before!

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Tarzan of the Apes is the first movie appearance of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ iconic character.  The film’s popularity led to three sequels:  The Romance of Tarzan (1918), The Son of Tarzan (1920), and The Adventures of Tarzan (1921).

Tarzan of the Apes is a fairly straightforward retelling of the novel.  After a mutiny, John and Alice Clayton are marooned in Africa.  Soon Alice gives birth to a son. Both parents die shortly after the child is born.  Kayla, an ape, raises the baby as her own.  The boy grows to adulthood among the apes. 

Years later another survivor of the mutiny spreads word that the Claytons survived.  An expedition is sent to Africa to locate them, but instead they find Tarzan of the Apes!  When Jane, a member of the expedition, is captured by natives, it is up to Tarzan to save her.

Tarzan of the Apes consists of iconic scenes from the novel which covers decades,  Gordon Griffith plays Tarzan as a young boy.  So technically, Griffith is the first person to play Tarzan!  Take that, trivia buffs.  Elmo Lincoln plays the adult Tarzan.  His Tarzan is a strongman with a headband.  Having only seen stills from the movie before, I was surprised at how quickly I adjusted to Lincoln’s portrayal of the Ape Man.   Although Enid Markey had a long acting career, she doesn’t have much to do here but scream, faint and look lovingly at Tarzan.

Tarzan of the Apes suffers from the actors in (poorly designed) monkey suits playing the apes.  The lion that Tarzan fights doesn’t look overly threatening.  Keep in mind that audiences of the day had never experienced better effects.  With that said, I’ve always enjoyed the different adaptations of Tarzan – movies, tv shows, comics, cartoons, etc.  I’m glad I finally got to see the 1918 Tarzan of the Apes.  It gets 3 of 5 stars.